Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade

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Third party DRM: Steam

This game requires a free Steam account to play.

Description

Deep under the central desert of Kronus, a vast honeycomb of skull-lined tunnels and funereal chambers house the awakening mass of the Necron plague. Eons ago, these were the boulevards and squares of a great necropolis built to house the bones of the races who had fallen to the Necron purge, and ultimately for the Necrons themselves to retire to. Over millions of years, sand and rock had covered it all until ill-fated excavations awoke the deathless again. Play any of seven races, striving for control over Kronus. Take other races' strongholds by winning challenging battles on various maps individually associated with the respective Strongholds.

Key Features:

New playable races, each with individual features

Brand new Single Player Campaign experience, playable by all seven races

Non-linear game-play: conquer an entire planet in the way you choose

Watch a unique, non-linear story unfold from your race's perspective

Customize and manage a persistent army as you sweep across the planet

Customize the appearance and abilities of your commander unit as he grows in power and influence

Discover the dark secrets of a planet shrouded in mystery

Customer reviews

75

A very good Warhammer RTS

Warhammer RTS game. A lovely combo for all the RTS and Warhammer fans alike. This game does almost everything right. The core mechanics are really good and it feels very good and smooth when you play the game. The graphics are acceptable and the art and design... well lets just say if you never heard of the warhammer universe you are in for a big surprise. The sound assets are pretty okay. The only thing that this game lacks is a good story. The story is actually a map of a planet with predetermined territories that you must conquer in a turned based manor. It is great to play but its a bunch of skirmish maps and not much more. There are some missions that put you in a map where the opponent has a strange advantage over you like a unique weapon system or a fortress but that's about it. Other than that the game is pretty good.

89

A large add-on to Dawn of War

Dawn of War was a great RTS from Relic who also made the critically acclaimed, Company of Heroes. Now the 2nd standalone expansion pack is out for DoW. The first being Winter Assault which need DoW itself. This being standalone could be its own game due to its large amount of hours that can be had.

With 7 armies to choose from, The Tao, Bloodangels, Chaos, Orcs, Imperial Guard, and the Eldar. You can play each of them and try to conquer the planet. You do this by whipping out the other armies territories and claiming for them for your army. Each army's conquest will take around 10-20 hours depending on how thorough you are with taking out your enemies. If you add that up it will be around 100+ RTS gaming hours.

With that in mind Dark Crusade can get tedious at times and if you don't switch up your strategy you can feel the repeatitivness in the gameplay. It is mostly the same game as DoW but with more features for the different armies.

The new maps and RPG feel of conquering, reinforcing, and hold land is a new touch. Your main hero/leader can also be equipped with add-ons that include missile launchers, upgraded swords, and other special items depending on the background of your hero.

Overall Dark Crusade is a great expansion that is what an expansion is meant for, to expand the current game, even if it is for countless hours. Now you won't need the original Dawn of War to play and enjoy this RTS gem from the makers of Company of Heroes.

98

Excellent RTS in the 40k Universe

Of all the Dawn of War expansions, this is by far my favorite. Unlike the first Dawn of War, every race is playable in the single player campaign, each with its own story. The mechanics of Dawn of War remain largely unchanged although I'm happy to say that each army plays very differently. Instead of linear levels, the game is separated into a large, segmented game "board" of sorts where each race battles over the various map pieces. Each piece of the map is its own level which provides different bonuses and special units as they are captured. The campaign ends when all of the other races have been wiped off the map. For the sake of not being too wordy, I'll end my review here. If you're a fan of Dawn of War, this stand-alone expansion has tons of replay value and at its current price point, you're unlikely to find an RTS that has more personality and variety of playable races. This game is a must buy!

86

The best expansion

Dark Crusade is a very good add on for Dawn of War series. Two new races are nice, but it's not what makes this expansion great. What makes it great was a single player campaign. First time in the series player has possibility to lead all avaiable races during campaign. This time the battlefield was an entire planet Kronus. During campaign, player moves his army from sector to sector and tries to conquer it. The major flaw was that most of the sectors offers a typical skirmish battle, where we build a base from scratch, make an army and fights against opponent. That was rather repetitive and could get player bored on long run. Each sector provides a unique bonus so it was worth to take them all.

What make up for it was battles for capitol. Every time we attack a capitol sector of other race there was a unique and challenging mission awaiting. Every capitol has it's unique style, layout and special objectives that was either required to fulfill in order to win or makes the next stage of battle easier. Losing a capitol eliminates a race from game so this sectors was always heavily guarded to prevent a rush tactic.

After completing a campaign you could always try a multiplayer (there still should be some players left) or install one of many mods and enjoy a game longer. If you are a fan of great RTS games and didn;t have this title yet - don't hestitate and but it.

95

Favorite Dawn of War game

Dark crusade boasts an impressive seven awesome races, and yet each maintains their own sense of uniqueness.

The two new races this game introduces are great.
First, you have the Necrons, a race of genocidal war machines bent on destroying all life. Their units tend to be extremely slow but powerful, and if you're lucky, sometimes they even revive upon their death.

The Tau, on the other hand, have reasonably weak, but long ranged units. As such they rely heavily upon tactics, and have units with the appropriate tools (such as stealth suits, or jetpacks) that promote such an approach.

The other races are fun as well, but to use them in multiplayer, you must own the previous games that they were introduced in. As such, I also recommend the original Dawn of War, and Dawn of War: Winter Assault to complement this game.